Nikki Haley, In Ending Campaign, Says It’s Up To Donald Trump To Earn Support Of Her Backers: “This Is Now His Time For Choosing”
Nikki Haley said that it is up to Donald Trump to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support” his presidential bid.
In brief remarks in which she announced that she is suspending her presidential bid, Haley said that “at its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away, and our conservative cause badly needs more people.”
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“This is now his time for choosing,” she said.
Trump has previously berated Haley for staying in the race, with his campaign calling her “birdbrain” and the former president mocking her husband, Michael, for being absent on the campaign trail. He’s been serving in the military on a deployment in Africa.
Trump also has threatened Haley’s supporters, writing in January that “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!”
Trump trounced Haley in just about every contest on Super Tuesday, although she pulled off a win in Vermont. Earlier today, her campaign signaled that she would drop out of the race.
Some of Trump’s highest profile supporters continued to insult Haley as news broke this morning that she was ending her bid.
Kari Lake, running for an Arizona U.S. Senate seat, wrote on X/Twitter, “Reports: Nimrata Haley will suspend her campaign today after more humiliating, landslide loses on Super Tuesday.”
Trump himself did not mention Haley in his victory speech on Tuesday night, and this morning he invited her supporters to join his campaign. But he also gloated over the extent of her loss and minimized the size of her support.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont, and various other Republican Primaries. Much of her money came from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according to the polls. At this point, I hope she stays in the “race” and fights it out until the end!”
Although Haley suffered resounding losses, what’s unclear is whether some of her supporters are so opposed to Trump that they would back President Joe Biden in the November election.
Biden’s campaign released a statement from the president shortly after she announced that she was dropping out.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” Biden said. “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we don’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”
In her speech, Haley said, “I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee. But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.'”
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